photo credit: Kaitlyn Hickey

by Eric Reeder

Follow this as I connect dots....

Jesus was asked, "who is the greatest in the Kingdom"? (Matt 18:1)

This is the question of an orphan nature. The orphan heart is always longing to know its value and is insecure in their status. It's the ongoing battle most live out. Am I good enough, am I important, am I better than them? We can secretly think, "I know I'm better than they are". Compare. Compete. Strive to gain a sense of recognition and worth. It's the "king of the hill" lifestyle - having the need to be seen as better than others and get the credit.

Jesus' reply came from the nature as the Son. His reply wouldn't speak to their question of status. He replied to the reality of their position.....

Key definitions in Matt 18:3-4. Then I'll put it all together:
* turn = repent / change how you're approaching this
* child = young person, but we can easily connect to this "a son"
* humble = reduce your need for status based on what you can obtain
* greatest = to age, eldest / see this as mature
* enter = come into maturity of who you are in Father's heart (sons / sons of the Kingdom)
* kingdom = His place of rule - His rule comes from His heart / His heart is the source of His kingdom (son of His heart / You came from His heart)

Jesus replied:

• Unless you change how you approach this (stop living from an orphan nature) and end your need for your status to come from what you can obtain, you won't embrace that you're a son (highest position) and mature into the "aged"/fullness of who you are in Father's heart.

Jesus spoke to their/our position in Father's heart that came from His goodness to have us there not our ability to obtain being there.

This is what causes us to abandon the orphan nature and fully live in the secure reality that we are His and there is NO higher status/greatness.

Those in Christ, of His Kingdom, in Father's heart are all sons at the highest position. Therefore there is no one "greater".

by Pastor Mark Wargo
Lead Pastor at Cross Current Church, Port Huron, MI
Author of "Beyond Betrayal - No More Broken Churches"


To me, being called by Father to lead His church is the greatest privilege and honor. If you are a church leader in any capacity, you probably understand what I’m saying. You probably realize you have been called to a big task. But if we are honest, sometimes the bigness or value placed on the task can be viewed through the lens of the size of the church or ministry. We can lose sight of the fact that God places value on the purpose, not numerical size. Here’s the truth – God doesn’t care if it’s a church or ministry of a five thousand, a thousand, or fifty. The importance is still the same to Him. Several years ago, while in the midst of the worst ministry storm of my life, I learned many important lessons that forever changed the way I lead. One of which I will share with you today:
 
1. Be Uniquely You-
You are unique! You have been created for the now! God is a God of the ‘I am”. He is present and fully engaged in you. I’m sure this is not the first time you have heard this. Heck, you have probably even preached it several times. But in my experience, most or all of church leaders have to wrestle this truth down.
I like to go to conferences, seminars, listen to podcasts. I love to learn from other leaders, but in my early years, I fell into the trap of copying what other successful leaders have done, especially when I wasn’t seeing much success! I would take what I learned and bring it home only to run into unsuccessful results. I figured if it worked for them, then it must work for me. Many times, the lack of success caused me to spiral into feelings of inadequacies, feelings of failure and illegitimacy. Now as I look back, I believe the reason I had no to little success was because Father wanted to birth something unique out of the uniqueness within me. I believe He desires to do the same in and through you. There is nothing wrong with learning from others, I still do that today from pastors around the nation, but we can’t abort our own uniqueness for the sake of achieving the forever moving target of ‘success’.
 
So here is my encouragement to all the church leaders reading this:

• Father has uniquely put you together.  So learn YOU and reveal it.
• No one has the inner wirings like you do. So don’t live to copy others.
• Who you are on this planet, at this specific time, is no accident.
• The people you are leading need you fully present and uniquely you.
• The world needs the revealing of the uniqueness that is within.
• There is a unique purpose for why you lead and where you are leading, do it!
• Trust what you feel on the inside! That is where the gold is.
• You can’t fully advance others until you advance you, and you can’t advance you until you tap into the uniqueness within.

 
Lastly, when you allow for your uniqueness to shine, you will one more time reveal the awesome creativity of Father!

Pastor Mic Cox of The Anchor Church in Parkersburg, WV is recording short audio clips to share exciting insight of Biblical Hope.  This link takes you to RISEmovement's SoundCloud to hear this from Pastor Mic.  Enjoy!

Theology of HOPE pt 1 SoundCloud audio

by Elexio Baillou
Founder of PAGA
Author of "The ABC's of Prophecy"
Itinerant Conference Speaker
Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas

Be advised that we presently live within an era in which the Body of Christ is shifting from an escapist mentality into that of kingdom dominion and progression. This kind of transformational paradigm and movement is being perpetuated first and foremost by the Lord Jesus Christ through the person of His Holy Spirit into the hearts and minds of Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers.

In this hour we are watching as the power of the finished work of Jesus Christ is being made known to God’s people who are in turn slowly but surely accepting new truths that were once hidden to them by centuries of religious dogma and lies. Such revelations are thankfully being espoused by men and women committed to teaching, preaching, and demonstrating the truth, the whole truth, and NOTHING but the truth.

Such a movement in and of itself is undoubtedly divine in origin and proof positive of the Sovereign’s hand in directing His body forward through His 5-fold leadership. For He has predetermined that new truths, revelations, and dispensations of His power be expressed in and through such a corporate community, who functioning as the fingers of God are able to cast out demonically ingrained ideologies and paradigms established through socialization, education, and just “good ole” demonic possession so that the Kingdom of God (His rule and reign) can be established within the hearts and mind of those who hear. (Luke 11:20).
Therefore, the question now becomes how does what God’s Spirit is speaking to the Church in an era end up taking room and finding manifestation in the lives of His people so that they end up showcasing what He is speaking.

Apostles: Typically God will raise up an individual or a conglomerate of individuals who are called to function as crusaders or pioneers with the express commission to preach, teach, establish works, and disciple specific communities of people in a revelation that the Lord has given them. This my friends is more so than simply a powerful truth but rather a new perspective and paradigm that typically changes the way in which those who end up following them live and function. Because Apostles are the trailblazers with such revelations, they tend to be labeled heretics, false prophets, antichrists and the like by both the world and especially the Body of Christ who more so than not would rather fight against what the Lord Jesus Christ has ordained would manifest than see for themselves if in fact these Ambassadors are in fact of the Lord and assigned by Him to declare to them what was once hidden from them. Nevertheless despite the opposition that they face, you can be assured that most Apostles are willing to die for their commission and will continue along in their commissions with or without the support of the masses, which interestingly enough tend to turn towards what they are speaking. This is because those loyal to religious lies and deceptions and those who have perpetuated the same fear the exposure of their faulty beliefs and would many times rather give themselves to preserving their platforms and popularity even if it meant fighting against the Lord Himself and His representatives. Yet, Apostles many times are unable to be dissuaded from their assignments within a particular metron (measure of rule) and draw to themselves a community of individuals of like minds and passions. That is, Apostles draw those assigned to their commissions. This community of individuals who show up then become disciple in the Apostle’s doctrine (measure of revelation) and if in fact they are called into the 5-fold ministry as other Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers, you can be assured that the expression of administrations will without a shadow of a doubt be tainted and colored by what God has spoken to them through the Apostle who has unfolded to them the mystery or mysteries given to them. Thus we end up with a commission team who stand and function in a supportive capacity to ensure the perpetuation of what God has declared should be made manifested in His Church. Apostles then would then typically undertake the monumental task of manifesting their Apostleship within the context of the revelation given to them and showcase fully their administrations as a means of bringing credibility to themselves as God’s Ambassadors and ensuring that those formerly not colonized now begin to live in a way congruent with their commission.

Prophets: Gifted and skilled to work alongside God’s Apostles, Prophets once activated, awakened, and disciple in God’s truth through that Apostle now make it their aim to one ensure the longevity and safety of that Apostle’s commission and their work through utilizing their watchman capacity and capabilities to assist, advise, and co-labor with that Apostle. Their prophecies, insights, and revelations typically become attuned to the commission of that “sent One” until it becomes their lifelong mandate to ensure that what God has spoken to that Apostle comes to pass. Therefore, through the application and manifestation of their prophetic skill and strength they will pray, prophesy, activate, and deliver entire bodies of people into their pre-ordained and assigned places within the commission of that Apostle until all who have been assigned to their “ward” are manifesting the prophetic words and insights given by that Prophet whose prophecies are meant to serve the commission of that Apostle.

Therefore, typically their prayers, prophetic utterances, perspectives, revelations will all possess the “edge” of the commission of that Apostle, and like Moses the Great Prophet of Israel delivered the Israelites into their Canaan, so will the Prophet serve many times to deliver God’s people into the fullness of what that Apostle or Apostles were speaking of previously.

Evangelists: Demonstrating zeal and passion, Evangelists groomed and baptized in the perspectives and revelations of God’s Apostles serve to call all who would be saved into the Kingdom through the Word of God given by His Apostle or Apostles. Their preaching and teaching, even focus groups are meant to call and cause those whom God would have to be saved and apart of the fruit of that Apostle’s commission. They announce to the unbelieving and remind those who are saved and likely unmotivated and hopeless of what Jesus has promised to them by His Apostles and what He will do in and through their lives. The convincing and convicting power of their words when backed by Holy Spirit presence and power typically can lead to many joining the community being disciple and dispersed according to the revealed mysteries given in the Apostle’s doctrine resulting in joy, liberty, freedom and kingdom progression.

Pastor: Possessing compassion and great care for God’s household, Pastors are wise and trustworthy stewards who serve to show compassion and watch over those led to the Lord through His evangelists (many times) and work diligently to ensure that they are protected from unscrupulous individuals who would devour those belonging to the household of faith and steer them from wandering of into ungodly ideologies and guiding them back into the household of faith if they become hopeless or once again drunk in the world’s lifestyle and methodology. Though many times considered insignificant in compassion to the Apostles and Prophets, Pastors play a crucial role in feeding and caring for God’s people. For He would have it to be so that those who manifest His truth be physically, emotionally, and spiritually whole, and as we all should know at this juncture, Pastors bear a deep burden of responsibility to shepherd God’s people and do best within the context of the revelations espoused by His Apostles.

Teachers: Every truth and every concept must at some point take on flesh and find its application in the lives of the hearers. Thus, the agents given this weighty task and responsibility are God’s Teachers. Working in tandem with the other administrations, Teachers will and do serve to make sense of heavenly truths and concepts until they are both palatable and earthly in their application. They ensure that the integrity of God’s Word spoken by His Apostles is true, credible, verifiable, and sensible so that God’s people can in fact do something with the many times deeply profound and all impacting Word presented to them. They ensure that God’s people are not simply overwhelmed by the revelations given by the Apostles, awed by the accuracy of the Prophets, stirred by the preaching of the Evangelists, and comforted by the care of the Pastors, but are able to comprehend what God actually MEANT in their everyday lives when He spoke and what they must now do as citizens of God’s Kingdom under the leadership of that Apostle who was commissioned to empower them to advance the Kingdom, that Prophet who was assigned to prophesy their advancement in that commission, that Evangelist who was assigned to bring them into that commission, and the Pastor who was assigned to ensure their well-being in that commission.

As you can very well tell from my writings, the key to bringing this altogether and ensuring that God’s Kingdom and His present truths are continually manifested in the world in which we live is in fact the Apostle and their commission. Their role is pivotal and can be compared to that of a steering wheel as it determines where the entire car (Church) is headed and how in fact as a body it moves. Do understand that is it not my intention to glorify and “enthrone” any administration and Officer of God’s Kingdom more than the next but to ensure the orderly arrangement of things, including His people so that what He has decided would be manifested in the lives of His people comes into fruition without the unnecessary hindrances and problems we have dealt with in past seasons. As well, to ensure that we finally MATURE as the BODY of Christ, not only preaching the message of the Kingdom but rather exuding the Kingdom.